Puzzles have an artistic and educational appeal as well as presenting an intellectual challenge. Typically, puzzles are assembled by matching a number of interlocking irregularly cut puzzle pieces to form a planar pictorial illustration on the surface of the puzzle. The assembling of a puzzle by a child user enhances physical skills (hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills), cognitive skills (visual discrimination, sorting, classifying, analyzing, deducing), and emotional skills (patience with a reward for completion) as well as providing play value.
However, storage of puzzles with interlocking puzzle pieces is problematic for parents, schools, child care facilities, and the like, because the pieces are not securable to the puzzle base, so cannot be stored as a cohesive unit.
Display of a finished puzzle provides similar challenges. Though the pieces of a finished puzzle can be fixedly attached to the puzzle base for display (such as by permanently gluing the puzzle pieces to the base, thereby preventing disconnection and allowing vertical display on a wall), this operation precludes repeat assembly, thereby limiting the skill enhancement opportunities and play value of the puzzle.
There is a need for a puzzle with shaped pieces that provides amusement and an educational challenge for the child user while providing pieces that are easily attachable to create a cohesive unit for storage or display, and yet are releasable for repeat play.